BEIJING - Chinese industrial businesses saw their profits rise 9.4 percent year on year in the first two months of 2014, official data showed on Thursday.

Total profits of industrial companies with annual business revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($3.25 million) reached 779.3 billion yuan in the Jan-Feb period, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

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The growth rate was lower than that for the whole of 2013, which stood at 12.2 percent. But it was notably higher than that for December, when profits of industrial companies rose only 6 percent year on year.

In the first two months, the performance of these firms was uneven. State-owned and State-holding industrial enterprises achieved total profits of 216.9 billion yuan, down by 0.2 percent year on year, the data showed.

Profits of private firms in China rose the fastest at 16.4 percent to reach 260.3 billion yuan in the first two months.

Combined profits of foreign-funded enterprises and companies funded from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan stood at 181.5 billion yuan, up 14.5 percent year on year, the data showed.

Joint-stock enterprises achieved total profits of 445.6 billion yuan, an increase of 6.9 percent year on year.

Some industrial companies fall into one or more of the above (four) categories.

By sector, industrial firms in the mining industry achieved total profits of 103.8 billion yuan in the first two months, tumbling 18.5 percent year on year.

Companies in the manufacturing sector saw their profits rise 14.8 percent year on year to 610.9 billion yuan in the same period.